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Transposed Vol. 1
Chapter 2: Dawning Realizations

Chapter 2: Dawning Realizations

Chapter 2 Dawning Realizations

[Amos]

I blinked my eyes open. Or at least I attempted to blink my eyes open, instead of them working properly as they should they felt like someone had adhered them together with super glue. It took a few blinks but eventually, I was able to get them open and blink out the blurriness.

This was not the first time I had woken up with my face pressed against the cold tile of the bathroom floor, confused and having no idea how I got there, unfortunately for my liver. And it was also not the first time I had woken up next to a woman I had no recollection of ever seeing before, though admittedly that had only happened a time or two.

But it was the first time for me to wake up confused and not knowing how I ended up in the bathroom next to a woman I had no recollection of ever meeting, who was consequently also sleeping on the bathroom floor. My bathroom was tiny, and I mean apartment-sized tiny, so the fact that she was there sleeping on the floor meant that-

Yep, she was literally laying across me, with the way the two of us were positioned we formed a sort of x shape on the bathroom floor, my head on one side of the toilet and hers on the other. I took a deep breath and grunted, before moving carefully to extricate myself, both from the floor and her body, while I did so I wondered how I had gotten into this situation, there was no way in hell I had gone out drinking and picked up this girl last night, was there?

No, I had been too busy throwing up to even think about that, not to mention the fact that we were both here, in the bathroom, not in my bed or something, that was weird, like really weird. As I got to my feet I took a good look at her, now that I could see her in her entirety. She was a smaller woman, probably five two or five five though she was fully developed, or at least with that dress she wore that was what it looked like. The dress in question was something you would expect to see in a medieval period piece, or the ren fair or something. It was two different shades of green, the top, the bodice I guess, was a dark emerald, and was pulled rather tightly around her frame, below that there was a lighter green, like spring leaves or something, and was long, going all the way down her leg and only showing the tiniest bit of her skin above the ankles, though whether or not it would actually drop that extra inch lower if she stood up was anybody's guess.

I glanced over all of that, and while interesting it was not those things that caught my attention. No that was her face, ears, and hair. Her hair, while it was fanned out around her head in a disorganized halo around her head, on the tiles, was a strangely beautiful silvery blonde, so blonde it was practically pure silver. It was cut to chin level, perhaps a little lower, with the bangs, and I was willing to bet that it looked good on her. The portion of her face that I could see that was not on the floor or obscured by the hair was extremely pretty, with smooth skin the color of creme and a dusting of slightly darker freckles that seemed to go from cheekbone to cheekbone, dividing her upper and lower face as it scattered over the bridge of her nose in a rather adorable arch, not that that was what really caught my attention, no that honor went to her ears.

They knifed back and up, looking for all the world to see like something out of the lord of the rings, like Peter Jackson's elves. I leaned down to get a better look at them, whoever had made those prosthetics was amazing, as best as I could tell they matched her skin color perfectly, likely she had either made them herself or had them custom made to match her. I couldn't even see where the real ears ended and the fake ones began.

I was about to reach down and give the tip of it a tug when I heard someone knocking on my front door. I was about to shout something obscene back at the person on the other side when they spoke up. "Amos! You feeling ok?" Well fuck, this was probably the worse outcome of all time. I didn't think I had shut the door properly last night, and knowing Jenna, she would come in and check on me. Sure enough, I heard the door creak open and that was when I started to panic.

It was one thing to go home early because you were sick, and another entirely to lie about being sick, go home and apparently hook up with a girl, which was exactly what this would look like to Jenna if she saw whoever this was on the floor. Thinking quickly I move the sleeping woman's foot into the bathroom and shut the door before turning around and jumping as Jenna was right there standing behind me. "Woah," I said, breathing out slowly to calm myself down, "you surprised me."

"Sorry about that, you weren't answering and so I came in to make sure you hadn't died or something," she laughed, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear.

"Nope, hadn't died," I laughed back, and I hoped that it only sounded so forced in my own head and not out loud. "Thought I might last night though," I said, blocking her path from the bathroom by crossing my arms and leaning against the wall, in what had to be the most contrived looking relaxed position known to man." Felt like my head was going to explode," I smiled back, "thanks for closing up shop for me."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Not a problem," she fished in her purse and pulled out her keys, working mine loose of the ring and handing it back to me. I dropped it in my pocket quickly and was about to see if I could shuffle her out of the apartment but before I could she spoke again. "Hey, listen, can I use your bathroom," she gave me a small smile that seemed part embarrassed part curious and I felt my stomach drop.

"No!" I practically shouted the words, and she jumped back a step in surprise, mentally cursing myself for the rather explosive and suspicious response to what would otherwise be a normal thing I attempted to cover my blunder. "Normally I would-" she gave me an odd look, "but I have yet to clean up in there, got really sick last night, like really sick-" and that was when the woman in the bathroom decided now was a good time to move around, something fell off of the bathroom vanity counter and shattered against the tile floor, probably the mason jar I used as a toothbrush holder, she had likely accidentally kicked the vanity, or perhaps she had stood up and hit it with her hand it didn't matter, all that mattered is that when it hit the floor Jenna clearly heard it.

"What wa-" I grabbed her by the shoulders and steered her clear, quickly making our way to the door.

"I'm sorry, I really have to get this place cleaned up, ill see you at work tonight!" I said as I almost physically pushed her out of the door, and shut it, making sure to lock it this time. I placed my head on the door, and taking a few deep breaths calmed myself before turning around. "What the Fu-!" I managed to stop myself before finishing what I was saying because standing there, looking at me with dangerously narrowed eyes was the woman from the bathroom floor. Her cheek was red, likely from where she had laid it on the tiles all night and her hair was rather mussed, but as I stood there looking at her she crossed her arms under her breasts and gave me a narrowed eyed stare that could strip paint off of a steel bulkhead. "Um," I said awkwardly, somehow feeling like I had just been caught doing something wrong. "Hi."

"Where am I?" she asked, ignoring my hello and jumping right into it. Her accent was odd, it was cultured, intelligent, but not something I could place really, perhaps a little bit Scottish? She shifted her weight and I realized I had been staring at her for a while so I gave her an answer.

"You're in my apartment," I said with a shrug.

"No-" she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes, like she was dealing with an annoying child that had just said something stupid and she was trying to not lose her patience with it.

It really pissed me off.

"I mean where am I, not your apartment but where what district, what city, names I need names."

"Uh, your in Sylvan Colorado," no doubt the look on my face conveyed my confusion at her question, what did she expect to be somewhere else?

"Sylvan Colorado," she said, her chin sinking to her hand as she mulled the words over and over, like she was racking her brain for something. "Do you have a map I can see?" she asked, I was about to pull up google maps on my phone but she spread her arms wide, like she was holding a large paper.

"Uh, I think I have a travel atlas," I said, grasping that she didn't want the phone map but an actual large paper map. "Give me a sec," I walked past her and into the living room, moving over to my combination bookcase/game case/movie case and searched for a second before finding the atlas and pulling it down and setting it on the coffee table. I flipped through the pages until I found the one for Colorado and pointed at Sylvan. "We are here," I said, and she leaned over and looked at the map, first pouring over the page and then flipping to other ones and looking at them. "So, where are you from?" I asked casually, something about the set of her shoulders as she leaned over the map radiated a sense of dread and worry.

"Holtrasta," she said as she flipped through the pages, "I can't seem to find it on these maps, are these accurate?"

"About as accurate as they come," I said with a nod, "Holtrasta huh?" I racked my brain searching for a city named that but nothing came to me." Haven't heard of that city-" she stopped what she was doing and looked at me, her eyes incredulous.

"Its the Capital, how could you not know it?" she asked.

"Well it's not the capital of Colorado and it's been quite some time since I last studded geography, so remind me, what state is that the capital of?"

"State?" she looked really baffled now, "Holtrasta is the capital of the Holtra empire."

"The what?" I asked, mirroring her confusion back at her no doubt, I was about to ask more when my eyes fell on her pointed ears and everything seemed to click into place, "I swear to God, could you please stop roleplaying for a minute and take this seriously?" her eyebrows rose and she was about to say something else but I cut her off. "Listen, I don't know who you are, and I definitely don't have time for this role-playing, I don't even know how you got here, the last thing I remember was coming home from work with one hell of a bad headache and then passing out, and when I wake up I find you in my house, now tell me, how the hell did that happen? Hmmm?"

She blinked at me, like my words were a punch in the gut and even though I didn't think it as possible her face drained of color even more than her already alabaster skin color, making her skin seem greyish. Before I could say anything she jumped up and ran towards the balcony door, flung them open and stepped out onto my small patio overlooking the city. She stood there for a moment, leaning against the black iron fencing, and when I joined her I noticed she was shaking. Her eyes darted around, looking first at the tall buildings that flanked us on either side, then down at the street billow, where cars jostled for position and dominance in a motorized dance of chaos. Then she looked at the lake off in the distance, the mountains surrounding it, once Sylvan had been a state park, the city had started out as a few small cottages and now was a bustling metropolis somewhere just shy of 300,000 people. She looked at me, tears in her eyes, real honest to God tears and collapsed into a sobbing mess on my balcony.